Defiance
by ms17thst
Summary: Myka is shot - and Helena will take things into her own hands. Gloria Brown, RN is there to take care of Myka, but who will take care of HG?


**One shot - short - couldn't help it ... it just seemed to come to me.  
If anything - be impressed that I wrote something this short. :-)**

* * *

**Filled With _Defiance_**

**"Defiance is beautiful. The defiance of power, especially great or overwhelming power, exhaults and glorifies, the rebel." Edward Abbey**

* * *

The Warehouse Agents were used to being in difficult situations, each having their own share of harrowing circumstances. As trained Secret Service personnel though, it was a rare event that caught them off guard. And as trained Warehouse Agents, nothing surprised them anymore.

Life had a way of casting both those facts aside one day when Myka ran into town alone to get the perfect scones for Helena. She was at the register of the bakery paying for them when two men walked in demanding money. Myka backed away from the register to get into position. The store owner did as she was instructed and put all the money in a bag and handed it over. Myka knew there were people in the store and their screams were making the thieves nervous. One of the men turned quickly and panicked when he heard a cell phone beeping. He shot in that direction of the noise and the two of them fled, the first one chastising the second for shooting someone. "_You stupid thing! You shot someone?" the older robber said to his younger brother. "You didn't listen to my instructions did you?" _ That was not supposed to happen. They took off in a car as people kept screaming and hiding.

One woman had the presence to do what was necessary and she dialed 911 to report the shooting.

"I think she's law enforcement because I see a badge on her belt, but it's covered in blood," the store owner told the dispatcher.

Within minutes, the ambulance and police were there taking the injured to the hospital and talking to eye witnesses. One of the cops took the phone off the victim's belt and wiped the blood off the screen. He opened the last text and read "_I miss you_" and pressed the number to dial.

Helena casually picked up the call because she was expecting that it was Myka saying she missed her too, and to ask why flavor scone she wanted. It was supposed to be a surprise, but HG knew where Myka was going when she left mysteriously before breakfast.

"_Good morning darling_," was met with the officer's introduction. Helena shot up from her chair and was in motion as he told her that her partner had been shot by a nervous gunman whose aim thankfully was not good. He did strike Myka in the stomach and there was a lot of blood and could they get to the hospital right away? Helena stopped only to yell for Pete and Claudia who rushed downstairs and tried to wrap their heads around the news.

Pete went to get the keys, but it was too late. Helena took the car and was on her way. They followed in the SUV and Claudia called Artie who met them there. Vanessa was already waiting and told them as soon as they arrived that Myka was in surgery and had the best doctors there.

* * *

"Is Gloria in there?" Helena asked.

"No, she's not an _OR_ Nurse, Helena. They won't let her in there," Vanessa tried to soothe the Brit.

"So there's no one in there who knows her? Why aren't you in there?" HG yelled at Vanessa. The doctor was all too familiar with Helena's outbursts and took this one in stride.

"Helena, she has the top doctors in with her now," Dr. Calder said. "Do you want me to get you something?" she offered and meant _to help you calm down_. It drew the darkest stare from Helena who resented the implication that she needed to calm down. "OK, no perhaps not," Vanessa said.

Helena continued to pace the floor. Vanessa talked to Artie and then left. She returned moments later with the only thing she could think of that would steady Helena - Gloria Brown, the Warehouse nurse who was a mother figure to the Brit. Gloria was exactly what Helena needed when she couldn't have Myka. The nurse brought Helena tea from home in a thermos because she knew cafeteria tea would never pass those lips.

Gloria asked - no - told Helena to sit down because she was making it worse for everyone else. Then she poured her tea and handed it to her without asking. It was the first moments of quiet the team had since they got there. Then the nurse got up and went over to hug Artie, Pete, and Claudia who did not let go. "She's gonna be okay," she assured them. She stayed with Claudia until the girl stopped shaking and returned to Helena. She knew the effects of one cup of tea would be temporary.

Helena left the room only for a minute and that was when the police came to give them an update. She joined Artie to hear that they thought the men that did this went into a spread of woods on the outskirts of town. They had dogs and officers searching and would keep them apprised of the situation. Helena's only question was to ask what they were wearing.

A little while later, the surgeon came into the waiting room to update them. The bullet was removed from the abdominal area and Myka was fortunate that it had not pierced any major organs. She was in pain, but she would make a full recovery. She would be in recovery room soon where they could see her one person at a time. An hour later, when Myka was resting and allowed visitors, she asked the floor nurse to get her friend for her. The nurse came out and said that Myka was groggy, but awake and that she asked to see Pete. It took Helena a minute to realize that it was not her name being called. Even Pete asked the nurse if she was sure because he saw the sting register on Helena's face. Gloria saw it too and went to say something, but Helena was too stunned to hear it.

Pete walked guiltily into the back and saw his partner. He returned a few minutes later to report that she looked okay and that she wanted Helena. Helena didn't say a word, but went back to see Myka. She held back tears when she saw the state of her friend and took Myka's hand when she raised it up. "I missed you," Myka said in a raspy voice and half-smile.

Helena leaned over and kissed her forehead that seemed warm to her. She drew her hand along the side of Myka's jaw and cupped it gently. "Oh Myka," HG whispered and the tears spilled over.

"I wanted to get you scones," Myka explained before drifting back into her induced sleep.

Helena wept quietly to think Myka was hurt when all she wanted to do was something nice.

"We're going to give her something for the pain. It's heavy duty so she'll be sleeping for the next several hours," the nurse said to Helena. She reached past the woman to touch Myka's IV and was met with a very stiff hand holding her in place.

"No one touches her but her nurse," Helena said with as much civility as she could muster.

"I am her nurse," the woman said frightened and insulted.

"_She_ is her nurse," Helena said calmly and looked at Gloria. The floor nurse went to argue, but the hold on her hand told her she needed back up. She went outside to her boss who had already had a conversation with one Mrs. Frederic. "_They're government – they bring their own I guess_," was all the woman said.

Gloria wished Helena had handled that a little more delicately, but given the circumstances, she understood. She got the orders from the doctor and proceeded to give Myka the painkiller through the IV.

"Honey, she's gonna sleep now. You won't be any good to her if you're exhausted. I'll stay right here," Gloria said and should have been suspicious when Helena agreed.

"You'll call me if she even moves, yes?" HG asked and Gloria promised.

Helena kissed Myka on the forehead and touched her hand. Only when she was convinced that Myka would not awake, did she take her leave and returned to the waiting room. She almost didn't stop, but Pete was standing between her and the exit.

"Hey there Agent Wells," he said in his friendliest voice and took HG around the shoulder and pulled her to the other end of the room. Helena resisted, but Pete was ready for her. His strong grip just glided her with him.

"You listen to me. She called me in there first because she was afraid of what you would do, so don't go off on your own now. You're a Warehouse Agent and you don't go fighting bad guys when the police are already on it," he said through clenched teeth like he was trying to console her instead of lecture her.

Helena wanted to smile now that she knew she was the first thing that Myka thought of and that this was the only reason she asked to see Pete first. Helena stopped for a minute. "I know, I know Pete," HG said and stopped resisting him.

"OK, let's just wait here and we'll see what Gloria says and we'll - you know - just be here, ok?" Pete said and his worry was palpable.

* * *

Mrs. Frederic appeared in the doorway and they all joined her to update her on Myka's condition. The doctor confirmed that the prognosis was good and that it helped that Myka was in such good shape. Gloria came out only for a minute to say that Myka was resting comfortably. She encouraged them to go home, if only for a couple of hours. No one wanted to leave, but Mrs. Frederic saw the pleading look in Gloria's eyes and took it upon herself to order them home.

"You're not going to do any good here. Go home for a couple of hours and get some rest. Leena and I will stay," she instructed them. They reluctantly got their things together.

"Agent Wells," Mrs. Frederic said as they were leaving. "Let the authorities handle this. I know how your feel, but we cannot overstep our boundary here."

Helena smiled and nodded as if she were in total agreement. When they went outside, it was raining and the sky was lighting up in the distance with lightening. Pete and Claudia headed for the SUV; Artie into the Jag and Helena went for her car. "I'll go with you," Pete said and was about to drive HG home. "Pete, I'd feel better if Claudia were not driving, she's pretty shook up," HG said. She was right.

"You'll follow me, right?" Pete said as he went back into the SUV.

"Yes," HG said and got into the car and then called out to Pete. "Give me a minute, I forgot my purse," she said as she ran back in.

Two minutes later, with the coat over her head, she got in the car and followed Pete out of the parking lot. Every time he checked the rearview mirror, Helena was close behind. It seemed to take forever to get back to the B&B that night, but when they did arrive, Pete was happy Helena was right behind him.

"Why isn't she getting out of the car?" Claudia asked as they ran through the torrential rain to the porch. Pete waved at her to come. "She's not going to make a run for it, is she?" Claudia thought out loud. The idea was enough to send Pete flying off the steps back to stand in front of the car, but the engine was off and the driver made no attempt to move. Pete couldn't see through the rain drenched windshield to see what HG was doing. He went to the driver's side window and tapped on it hard. He did a couple of times until the window started to creep down slowly.

"You can't sit out here all night, HG," he said to a woman whom he had never seen before. "Sonova…" as he put it together.

* * *

Miles away and with a long head start, Helena drove in the car she paid two hundred dollars to borrow for a few hours. She gave the owner another two hundred to put her raincoat over her head and follow the people in the black SUV. Helena listened on her IPhone that had been tampered with to pick up police radio signals. She now knew the police had lost the suspects in the vast wooded area. They decided to surround the perimeters given the heavy rain, lightning and darkness and wait for them to come out. Helena did not think this was a good plan.

"_No one can get through that mud and muck in there_," the Sergeant said in conclusion. The lighting cracked and lit up the face of the one person who was about to get through it.

As the police sat in their cars, Helena made her way through the dark with night vision glasses and her Tesla. Mud soaked her boots and would have impeded her walking if she wasn't running on pure adrenalin. She made her way to the only enclosure in the forest – a small shed that could easily house two men from the elements. She walked slowly albeit clumsily until she reached the entrance. She aimed her phone that now included the only heat seeking app of its kind at the structure and saw two men sitting on the floor with their guns aimed at the door. She went around to the back and shot twice into the back of the building and hit her targets. She made her way to the front entrance and walked in, closed the door and sat down on a crate. Within minutes, she pressed her phone to illuminate the room and smiled at the two men who sat paralyzed from the darts she just injected them with.

"My name is Helena. Today, you went into a store to rob it and one of you shot my partner. Now I know you can hear me even though you cannot move. Don't worry, that will wear off soon and then, if you have a death wish, you can try to use your guns," Helena smiled at them. There wasn't much light inside the cabin, but what little there was showed the darkest eyes and hardest stare either of these men had seen.

"The sensation will come back first to your faces and then eventually work its way down," Helena explained and sure enough, both men started to talk.

"He did it!" the older brother said giving up his brother. "I told him not to load the damn thing, but he wouldn't listen."

"Tsk tsk tsk," Helena said walking over to the younger man and tapping his foot as if admonishing him.

"He gave me the gun," the younger man said in his defense.

"Doesn't matter to me. You're both going to pay for hurting my partner," Helena said taking her seat again. The men tried desperately to move, but Helena knew the exact timing of the drug.

"In about one minute, you're going to be able to move your arms. I want you to spend the next sixty seconds thinking carefully about if you want to die here tonight," HG warned them.

Helena's timing was impeccable and in exactly that given time, both men could move their arms. Neither of them moved.

"Wise decision boys," HG said. She didn't make a move for their guns - having emptied them in the pitch black when they were paralyzed.

She looked at her phone and waiting until the exact time. "Get up," she said. The two men struggled to stand. "Put those guns in the back of your pants," she instructed and they hesitated. "Do it!" she said and aimed the strangest looking gun at them they had ever seen.

"Now let's go for a walk," she said and opened the door. She made the men walk to the perimeter of the forest farthest away from her car. She counted the seconds between the flashes of lightning and the thunder. The rain was pouring down and the thunder was so loud. She shouted for them to halt.

"Now gentlemen, I am going to give you an opportunity to run for it," HG said and they turned to look at her like she was crazy. "If you turn around or go for your guns, I will shoot you dead," she promised.

"How do we know you won't do that anyway?" one of the asked.

"I'm a lady of my word," she said and told them to go now. The two men didn't ask any questions, they took off with their hands above their heads trying to move as quickly as possible.

The police officers in the car had his wipers on, but the rain was so heavy it made visibility nearly impossible. One thought he saw movement and nudged his partner. They stared for a second before putting the spot light on the two men running through the trees. It looked as if they were running right for the cops. They got out of their car, guns drawn and were walking towards the suspects when what looked like the largest bolt of lightning hit the two men and propelled them forward.

"That damn lightning came from behind them," one of the said, unaware that it wasn't Mother Nature's work at all.

As Helena made her way back to her borrowed vehicle, the police called for an ambulance for their suspects. They read them their rights and handcuffed them. They had to laugh that their two-bit thieves were standing there, clothes ripped right off their backs, and both sporting what looked like intense sunburns.

"That's gonna make it hard to sit," the cop said to his partner as he helped lift the suspects into the ambulance.

* * *

Helena drove back to the B&B. She took her boots off on the porch and went inside to face her friends. She apologized to the woman who had switched places with her and gave her more money to have her car cleaned. The woman left convinced she had been part of an undercover operation and swore never to breathe a word of it. "_Who'd believe you_?" Pete said smiling.

"Helena!" he yelled as soon as their guest was gone. "Are you crazy? What did you do?" he said in the more serious voice Claudia ever heard him use.

"I took care of things," Helena said and went upstairs to change. She let the warm water wash away the filth of the forest.

Pete threw his hands up in the air. How could he help her? If Mrs. Frederic found out, she would do something very bad. Pete stopped in the middle of the hallway as if trying to reach out to see if he felt any bad vibes. No, everything was calm. "That's good," he said.

Helena came down a few minutes later. "I'm sorry, Pete. I had to take care of that," HG said, but didn't mean the apology part. Pete wanted to yell or lecture, but truth be told, he understood what Helena did, even if he may not have done it quite the same way.

"I'll be there when you face Mrs. Frederic," he said. They all drove back to the hospital.

* * *

"Well it took you long enough," the Sage said and Pete thought she meant about returning. Helena didn't meet her boss' eyes; she knew she had defied every rule and order. Mrs. Frederic never said a word to her. From her perspective, she was pleased that Helena had not taken the law into her own hands any further.

Helena returned to Myka's room and found her resting comfortable.

"She's gonna be fine, Helena," Gloria assured her.

She checked the IV and said she would be outside if she needed her. She knew when to give Helena space. She went out to the nurses' station to order food for the others when she heard them all laughing over the condition of the two suspects brought into the ER a little while ago.

"_The cop said they got what was coming to them. It was as if God chased them outta that forest and struck them with lightning, they came running out so fast_," the nurse relayed.

Gloria smiled until she put two and two together. She could have kicked herself! There was no way Helena would have left Myka's side unless she had something urgent to do. Gloria stormed off toward the waiting room, about to give Helena a piece of her mind. Mrs. Frederic gently touched the woman's arm as she passed.

"If we are truthful Gloria, we can't say we are surprised," she shared with the nurse.

"I should have known," Gloria said assuming the guilt of not stopping HG.

"Nurse Brown, if we look up the definition of _defiance_, it would say _open resistance, bold disobedience,_" Mrs. Frederic said.

"In other words ….. Helena?" the nurse asked and smiled.

"I would not be surprised if it had her picture," Mrs. Frederic said looking out the window.

* * *

Inside Helena leaned over Myka, watching her breathe and gently stroking her face. She stayed like that for hours until Myka started to move just a little. She slowly opened her eyes to the one sight she had wished for in her sleep.

"Hello you," HG said softly.

Myka smiled broadly. "Oh thank God, Helena." HG felt immediate guilt as if Myka knew what she had done.

"What darling?" HG asked hesitantly.

"I had the craziest dream," Myka said.

"Oh?" HG smiled relieved that they were talking about a dream.

"I dreamt we were in St. Louis, but it didn't look like it – but I recognized it by the arch. And you …your hair….," Myka said touching a long strand of HG's raven hair. "It was pure white."

"Well, I daresay you gave me quite a fright, but not enough to turn me gray," HG smiled.

"No not gray Helena, totally white. And your skin was so pale," Myka said trying to remember.

"Well, I've never been accused of actually tanning," HG kidded, but Myka seemed very serious.

"And your eyes were somehow so different," Myka said staring into the dark pools that reflected nothing short of adoration right now.

"I was a cop there and when I tried to talk to you, you spoke a language that I couldn't understand," Myka said slowly.

"Myka, they gave you a heavy sedative. I'm sure it's causing these dreams," HG said stroking Myka's forehead.

"But the worst part, Helena?" Myka said swallowing hard.

"Yes love?" HG said back.

"When you did speak English, your accent – it was gone. You sounded …. American," Myka said and was truly bothered.

"On now darling that sounds more like a nightmare. I assure you nothing has changed," HG said - her accent never thicker.

"I'm just so glad you are here," Myka said squeezing Helena's hand tightly.

"I'm so glad you are okay, Myka," Helena said softly.

"I'm going to go back to sleep now, ok?" Myka said unable to fight the fatigue.

"Of course, " HG said. "I'll be right here."

Myka smiled, turned her head, and closed her eyes. She never let go of Helena's hand.

"And Helena?" she said quietly before drifting off.

"Yes love?" HG said holding her hand.

"When I wake up - we will talk about where you were before," Myka said – and it wasn't a question.

Helena stared down at Myka, but didn't say a word.

"Mmm, mmm, mmm," Gloria said surprising HG that she was back.

"What?" HG asked defensively.

"I knew you would be taking care of Myka when she went home, but now it sounds like she's gonna take care of you and your foolishness. Mmm, mmm, mmm," the portly woman said shaking her head.

"I do not know what you are talking about," Helena tried to cast off the nurse's aspersions.

"I would not wanna be in your shoes, no sir. Mmm, mmm, mmm," Gloria said feeling as if all was right with the world now.

Helena tried to brush it off, but a nervous feeling started to build in her stomach.

There really was a price for….. _defiance_.

* * *

**OK too easy? **


End file.
